Mumbai Terrorist Siege Over, India Says

Indian commandos took control of the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower in Mumbai after a lengthy assault, the head of the commando unit said in a news conference.

SOMINI SENGUPTA and KEITH BRADSHER

MUMBAI, India — Indian commandos took control of the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower, the last nest of terrorist resistance, on Saturday morning, after a lengthy assault that left three terrorists dead and sections of the hotel in flames, the head of the commando unit said in a televised news conference.

Soldiers were still combing the hotel, going room to room in search of remaining gunmen, but the siege appeared finally to have ended, J. K. Dutt, director general of the National Security Guard, an elite commando force, said in the news conference at 9 a.m. Firefighters were permitted to begin pouring water over the flames that had burned out of control in the hotel’s lower floors for as much as an hour while the commandos battled the terrorists.

It was the third day of a siege that has shaken India, raised tensions with neighboring Pakistan and prompted questions about the failure of the authorities to anticipate the tragedy or to react swiftly enough as it unfolded.

All told, after attackers were cleared from a second hotel and a Jewish center on Friday, more than 150 people had died. Most of the dead were apparently Indian citizens, but at least 22 foreigners were killed. Among the dead reported were a rabbi from Brooklyn and his wife, who ran the Jewish center.

The main success for the authorities on Friday came at the second hotel, the Oberoi. The authorities said that two gunmen had been killed and 93 foreigners — some of them wearing Air France and Lufthansa uniforms — had been rescued, though 30 bodies were found. Survivors offered harrowing accounts of their ordeal, trapped on the upper floors of the high-rise hotel while gunmen prowled below. The National Security Guard said it recovered two AK-47s, a 9-millimeter pistol and some grenades.

For the first time, after several veiled accusations that Pakistan was involved, Indian officials specifically linked the attacks to their neighbor and longtime nemesis. India’s foreign minister blamed “elements in Pakistan” for the attacks , spreading the repercussions of the attacks beyond India’s borders. American intelligence and counterterrorism officials said Friday that there was mounting evidence that a Pakistani militant group — Lashkar-e-Taiba, which has long been involved in the conflict with India over the disputed territory of Kashmir — was responsible.

The Indian authorities were beginning to face sharp questions about why operations to flush out a handful of assailants at the Jewish center and at the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower had not moved more rapidly. And many other basic questions remained for a crisis that unfolded so publicly, on televisions, Web sites and Twitter feeds across the world. Who were the attackers? The police tally was at least 11 killed and one captured alive, but could so few militants have caused such mayhem?

Indian commandos said the attackers at the hotels were well trained, with one carrying a backpack packed with hundreds of rounds of ammunition, and they seemed to know the buildings’ layout better than the security forces, indicating a high degree of preparation. Some were seen arriving by boat; others may have been guests at the hotels for days.

The leader of a commando unit involved in a gun battle on Thursday morning inside the Taj said during a news conference on Friday that he had seen a dozen dead bodies in one of the rooms.

His team found a gunman’s backpack, which contained dried fruit, 400 rounds of AK-47 ammunition, four grenades, Indian and American money, and seven credit cards from some of the world’s leading banks, he said. The pack also had a national identity card from the island of Mauritius.

The attackers were “very, very familiar with the layout of the hotel,” said the commander, who disguised his face with a scarf and tinted glasses to hide his identity. He said the militants, who appeared to be under 30 years old, were “determined” and “remorseless.”

As the State Department reported that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had called President-elect Barack Obama twice to brief him on the attacks, American intelligence and counterterrorism officials said Friday there was mounting evidence pointing to the involvement of Lashkar, or possibly another Pakistani group focused on Kashmir, Jaish-e-Muhammad.

The American officials cautioned that they had reached no conclusions about who was responsible for the attacks, or how they were planned and carried out. An F.B.I. team was being sent to Mumbai to assist with the forensic investigation. In a statement, President Bush said he was saddened by the deaths.

On Friday, commandos slid down ropes from a hovering Army helicopter, landed on the roof of the Jewish center, Nariman House,and stormed the building, home to the Hasidic Jewish group Chabad-Lubavitch.

The bodies of at least five people were found inside, including the slain rabbi, Gavriel Holtzberg, who held dual American and Israeli citizenship, and his wife, Rivka, an Israeli citizen. Another was that of Rabbi Leibish Teitelbaum, a Brooklyn native who moved to Jerusalem several years ago, according to a statement by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. Israeli radio reported that a sixth body had been found at the center as well.

The dead at the Oberoi included a 58-year-old man and his 13-year-old daughter, members of a spiritual community visiting from Virginia, who were shot in the lobby. They were among at least five Americans who were killed during the three days of violence, the State Department said on Friday night.

The Indian authorities on Friday kept up a steady stream of accusations aimed at Pakistan, raising fears of heightening tensions between the countries.

R. R. Patil, the home affairs minister of Maharashtra State, where Mumbai is situated, said the assailant who had been captured alive was a Pakistani citizen. The Indian foreign minister, Pranab Mukherjee, said early evidence explicitly pointed to Pakistan’s involvement. “Preliminary evidence, prima facie evidence, indicates elements with links to Pakistan are involved,” he told reporters in New Delhi.

In London, officials said they were unable to confirm reports in a British newspaper that some of the attackers had British passports. Holding British passports is relatively common among people with ties to former colonies.

Pakistan seemed anxious to defuse the mounting crisis in relations. Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said India and Pakistan should join hands to defeat a common enemy, and urged New Delhi not to play politics over the attacks in Mumbai, Reuters reported.

“Do not bring politics into this issue,” he told reporters in the Indian town of Ajmer during a four-day visit to India. “This is a collective issue. We are facing a common enemy and we should join hands to defeat the enemy.”

President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan called Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India to say he was “appalled and shocked” by the attacks, Reuters reported. “Nonstate actors wanted to force upon the governments their own agenda, but they must not be allowed to succeed,” he said.

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.